I.P Freleigh's Animal Stories

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Don't know if this has been done before (if it has it's probably buried), but what kind of strange and ferocious animals have you had to deal with at work?

I'll go first...

• The stray cat that used to hang around by the back of the store, and our receiving clerk would feed it whenever he saw it.
• The big-time mouse infestation we had a few years ago, which probably explains why the cat was hanging around
• Various birds that get in through the overhead doors, try to build nests, and then die (Found a dead one upstairs by the bikes; the pharmacy girls were trying to get it so they could put it in a bag and put it on their manager's desk as a prank. Sickos. )
• The raccoon we saw one night wandering around by the doors as if to say to us "I'm going through ur garbage cans, kthnxbai."

[Ringtail Z28]

There were all kinds of animals popping up at the Target I worked at. They all came from the marsh less than a quarter mile away.

Seagulls were particularly annoying, they bombed the hell out of everything. I still dream of taking my BB guns to the lot and picking the damn things off.

Ducks were known to just wander into the store once in a while.

Rats were somewhat common, had quite a bit of fun hunting them down. That also led to a cat infestation which really stank the place up.

Possums and coons I found out could be more mean than stray dogs.

Skunks can be friendly when they want to. I once had one rub up on me like a cat for no apparent reason.

Foxes, cute but stink.

[Catwoman2965]

Nothing too exciting, but at my main job, there was an orphaned fawn hanging around the parking lot, until some of my co-workers managed to catch it, and took it to a wildlife rehab facility. My friend was the one who drove it, and it started out in the back of her truck, and ended up in the front seat! Hopefully it's either back in the wild now, or being taken care of at the facility.

[myswtghst]

Having worked as a zookeeper and in several vet hospitals and animal shelters, I have stories upon stories from there. The most memorable ones for me are as follows:

-At the last vet hospital I worked at, I got to help trim the nails of an anxious flying squirrel. I was holding a pen to his mouth for him to bite on, and when I turned to grab something, the little bugger bit clean through the pad of my finger. Since the door to the waiting area was open, I had to contain my curses under my breath. Not fun.

-At the zoo, one of the more interesting things I was involved with was crate training a rhino. To get him accustomed to there being noise outside, I got to climb on top of the crate and bang on with sticks while jumping around. While up there, I just kept thinking "WTH am I doing?"

-The second most interesting thing I was involved with at the zoo was working with the bongos, which are big African antelopes. I got to help with the artificial insemination of one, and the necropsy of another one who died a while later. It was incredibly sad when she died, but so neat to be involved in that.

As for my current office job, we just have a mice infestation, due to my messy coworkers keeping dirty dishes and food in/on their desks. The other night a coworker caught a baby mouse in a trash can, and we kept him around, watching him, feeding him banana and giving him stuff to play with, until he made his escape by jumping out while I was away from my desk. I think they're so cute I can't imagine killing them, even though I know it's gross and dirty to have them around.

[April]

There is an incredibly skinny, incredibly picky fox that comes around work. I threw out a piece of lunch meat that still had a bit of bread attached to it and he wouldn't eat it until I took off all the bread.

we also have two families of racoons that come around, two mama's and 5 babies total. I've only seen the babies once. Supposedly one of the mama's is so friendly she will curl up in your lap to be petted

[K'Z'K]

Since I work in veterinary emergency/critical care, this seems like a good thread to make my debut (hi!)....

Back in high school, I volunteered at an animal shelter in the city. One day I walked into the back room (where new animals were kept while being evaluated for adoptability). Pit bull, pit bull, rotti, pit bull, sheep, pit bull.... Yeah, a sheep. Apparently someone had found a stray sheep out in the boonies and brought it to the only shelter he knew...

Like myswtghst, I've seen all sorts of fabulously entertaining cases. The category of "he ate WHAT?!?" is always a good one. There was a dog who ate the dirt from the houseplants' pots, so the owners put a screen over the dirt--and he ate the screen. A puppy that ate a stick almost as big as she was. A dog who ate his owner's wedding ring--they day before the wedding (the bride got an x-ray). And my favorite--the chocolate toxicity/marijuana toxicity/aluminum foil foreign body dog whose heart rate was about 40bpm for two days (normal for him whould have been more like 120). Non-dogs get into stuff too, but never anything funny (for the record, all of these dogs recovered fully).

And as anyone in the field knows, the animal's name can tell you everything you need to know. I have scars from Princess and Angel. Satan was the nicest cat I've ever met.

I'm also a graduate student in ecology. We don't use our lab space much (we're all about field or theoretical stuff, so not much need for it), so it gets cleaned about once a decade. When we cleaned last year, we found three mummified mice, several jars of frogs, many bags of fox crap, and a human brain. The mice were the only things we threw out, since the rest belong to someone...

-K'Z'K

[wagegoth]

A few years back, I nearly hit a monster mommy raccoon, with a trail of babies. She was HUGE! She would have done a lot of damage to my car.

A couple years back, we were in some really pretty buildings that were landscaped with pine trees, ponds, etc. We had wild ducks that hung out all the time, enjoying the pond, looking for scraps. At night, you could see the raccoons climbing the trees. Squirrels and birds were everywhere.

However, one night (I worked graveyard) as I came in the building, I could see a couple of small, furry animals climbing up the striated wall. "Odd, I thought, "Squirrels usually aren't out this late." That's when I realized that the creatures didn't have furry tails. I managed not to freak, they scurried away, and I went in to work. I report this to the office manager.

A week or two later, as I'm leaving in the morning, the sun is coming up, and I'm looking forward to a nice day. Scurrying sounds from the bushes attracts my attention, and I look up to see, in clear daylight, that rats are, again, climbing up the handily ridged wall. Managed not to freak, went home, reported it again that night.

Next week, I'm leaving in the morning, and as I enter the outside area, behind the locked gates, I see a rat just below the stairwell, watching me intently. I went back inside. This time, one of the senior partners was in the department, so I told him that I personally had now had multiple sitings of rats. By the end of the week, the bushes that surrounded the entrance area, that grew right against the building, were uprooted, and small flowers were planted instead. No more rat sitings.

[Polenicus]

Not many issues with animals AT work, but...

I was working for a produce importer once (Basically, they purchase produce, in this case meat products, from another country and import it to Canada and resell it) and part of my duties was to make the bank deposit every week. This was cool, as there was no actual cash involved, just money transfers. As I had a car, it was no big deal, and a chance to get out of the office.

Well, the bank was at this mid-sized mall, with rooftop parking. Most days I avoided the rooftop parking because my car was all windows and would turn into a furnace by the time I got out again (And my steering wheel was black vinyl. Ouchie...). But this particular day it was too busy and I had no choice.

When I got out of my car, there was this seagull screaming at me. I don't what I did to piss him off, but he was mad. I ignored him... seagulls are generally noisy birds anyway, and what was he gonna do?

About halfway to the door to the stairs, I felt something like a golf ball hit me in the back, between the shoulder blades. I saw the seagull fly past, land on top of the entrance to the mall, look right at me and start SCREAMING bloody murder. "No..." I thought, "He didn't...!"

I reached back with my hand, touched my back where I had been hit... and got my fingers covered in a goopy, smelly mess. The seagull had BOMBED me, with a precision that spoke of some kind of biological laser-guidance. There was now a golf ball-sized mass of bird crap smeared all over the back of my shirt. My good, WORK shirt.

I had no choice. I went inside, with the birdcrap still in place, found a bathroom, and washed it off as best I could. Home was about 30 mins away, so going home to change was out of the question. I put the wet and still somewhat smelly shirt back on, washed my hands, did the banking, and went back to work. The seagull was outside laughing at me. Seriously.

My boss thought the story was hilarious.

[Emrld]

So I had the task of measuring one of our properties for flooring . . . well I also had a meeting later that day so I was fully dressed up. All the way down to the spike heels on my feet.
I measure in a closet and start to step out - hear a crunch noise and the step itself felt out . . . I look down. . . .sure enough now . . . on the heel . . . speared through the skull is one dead rat . . . I lift my foot it slid off and I learned that I can run in heels and not break my neck.
I know this is going to most likely make me look vapid . . .the part that bothered me the most - I had to throw away the shoes . . . and have yet to find a pair to replace them.

[wagegoth]

So I know this is going to most likely make me look vapid . . .the part that bothered me the most - I had to throw away the shoes . . . and have yet to find a pair to replace them.

It was dead; you didn't kill it; nothing to feel bad about. Besides, ick, it's a rat, not a cuter, less toxic rodent like a hamster.

[Emrld]

sorry . . .it was dead because my heel went into it's skull

[Tria]

Skunks can be friendly when they want to. I once had one rub up on me like a cat for no apparent reason.

Skunks are cool, but I was walking home late one night(SIU campus gets fucktons of skunks), and one walked right in front of me.... I saw that tail and I backed up.... I'm not disrespecting the biowarfare factory.

[Shabo]

Skunks are cool, but I was walking home late one night(SIU campus gets fucktons of skunks), and one walked right in front of me.... I saw that tail and I backed up.... I'm not disrespecting the biowarfare factory.

I found that by jingling keys, they tend to run away very quickly without getting scared. Just jingle them as you walk. Although, one of the RDs on my campus tried that and ended up getting chased by the skunk. I guess the skunk just had it out for her!

[Catwoman2965]

About halfway to the door to the stairs, I felt something like a golf ball hit me in the back, between the shoulder blades. I saw the seagull fly past, land on top of the entrance to the mall, look right at me and start SCREAMING bloody murder. "No..." I thought, "He didn't...!"

I reached back with my hand, touched my back where I had been hit... and got my fingers covered in a goopy, smelly mess. The seagull had BOMBED me, with a precision that spoke of some kind of biological laser-guidance. There was now a golf ball-sized mass of bird crap smeared all over the back of my shirt. My good, WORK shirt.

IThe seagull was outside laughing at me. Seriously.

EEWWWW...been pooped on by a seagull as well. Although your story about it laughing at you reminded me of something that happened to me in my first apt, i know, not work, but....

I lived in an apt in an old house, and had squirrels in the attic. My landlady was in her 90's, so i basically had to deal with it myself. Called an exterminator, who put traps, and then a one-way exit with chicken wire, which happened to be right above the roof outside of my kitchen window.

So Mr. Squirrel comes out, and finds out he can't get back in...i swear if looks could kill, he gave me the DIRTIEST look i've ever seen, and swished his tail in anger....I cracked up...it was funny to see!

[Aldous]

We had a deer come through the drive-through once. He was just standing at the window not doing anything. My manager looks over and tells me that I have a customer. I tried to serve him, but he ran away. I guess he realized that we weren't gonna take dry leaves as money.